Toyota Family

We are now officially a Toyota family! (both of our cars are Toyotas now)
We have been looking for a new minivan for our family for about the past year. Up to this point we have been driving a 2002 Dodge Grand Caravan and it has been a great car for us, but our family has outgrown it. It only seats 7 and our family currently has 8 people in it. We have been able to make do with it up until now but I really felt strongly that we needed to upgrade to one that fits our family before our scheduled family trip to Washington.

So one reason I was a little more scatterbrained then usual during the kids' last week of school is because I was busy car shopping. I drove to several car dealers with MJ and decided that the 8-passenger Toyota Sienna (a.k.a. the Swagger Wagon) was probably the best fit for our family. On Monday, June 6th I test drove a couple of them and found a 2008 model that I really liked. (Apparently the 8-passenger Siennas are a pretty hot item in Utah because one dealer I went to that day had sold two of them that morning.) DH agreed to accompany me to the dealer that evening and in the end we spent way too much time there because we decided to buy it! There were a few things that they needed to fix on it (such as replace the front windshield) so we decided to leave it there until everything was finished and ready for us to take home.

My dad gave me a ride to pick up the new minivan on Thursday. Unfortunately there were a few things that I noticed before I left the dealer that weren't taken care of - like they couldn't find the mats for the car anywhere so they had to order a new set for us. We were also only given one key so I went over to the service department and had a second key made - it's definitely better to have an extra one and not need it than to need one and not have it!

I think it's a very pretty car. They called the color "sand" - it's kind of a very light gold color. Thankfully it came with an overhead DVD player and crossbars for the roof rack so it pretty much came trip ready for our upcoming trip. DH asked me when we were looking at it if our old van has any features that the new van doesn't have. I told him that no I didn't think so, but after driving it around for a while here are some things that I have found: no separate climate control for the passenger, no remote for the DVD player, the rear climate controls are located on one side of the van so you need to have a passenger sit there who is tall enough to reach the controls, no lockable storage drawer under the passenger seat. Here are some features that I love: stow-and-go back row of seats, super deep trunk, not as big of a step-up to get into the van, power sliding door is much quieter and smoother than our Dodge, seats 8 and is fairly comfortable in the back seats - even with car seats (I rode in the back for a good chunk of our trip to & from Washington and there was plenty of room for me), we can fit a car seat and two booster seats all on one row, the front row seats can all slide forward and backward individually. We are still trying to figure out how everything works and where to best sit everyone - especially the car seats - and still allow the side seats to fold down so the kids can climb into the back row. It's also kind of difficult to buckle the seat belts for the booster seats when they are next to a car seat. (One of these days I won't have to worry about these things anymore...)

In the meantime...

Here are some blog posts to look forward to:

- M&M attended 2 church camps (and DH spent a night too)
- 4th of July parade & fireworks
- Luke at Webelos camp
- 2 July birthdays so far (and one more on Saturday)
- MJ starting to walk and communicate with baby signs
- 1st day of school for the Elementary school kids (yikes!)
- Fun at the pool and slip-n-slide
- Blondie's upcoming baptism (August 6)
- visits with family

And if you live in the Salt Lake area, come watch my kids perform in Faith the Musical at the LDS Conference Center Little Theater!! Performance dates are August 4-13.

Purchase tickets by clicking here: Buy Tickets

More info about the musical: Faith the Musical

And here's an article about the musical on the church's website: British Saints to Perform Faith, the Musical at Conference Center

This is a neat experience for our kids and we're excited that they are participating - even though the next 3 weeks are going to be very busy and hectic!!

Blog Update

Sorry I am behind in the blogging. We have run out of space on the computer I use so I haven't been able to put any of the pictures on it that I have taken over the last month! There have been a lot of things going on this past month (and I still have some blogging to do about the family reunion in Washington back in June)! My husband is working on backing up all of our photos onto his server and when he is satisfied with how that is working I will be able to delete some of the pictures from our Mac so that I can upload our more recent pictures to it. I just hope I don't forget everything that I want to blog about!!

Kid talk

Last night Luke and I were getting in the minivan to come home and Luke said to me, "Mom, can I scroll down the window?"

Little things

* Luke mowing the front and back lawns without complaint while M&M was gone for a week at camp.

* MJ sleeping through the night a couple of times a week.

* Watching MJ learn to walk!

* MJ learning how to go down the stairs the right way!

* M&M having a fun time at Oakcrest camp

* Getting dresses made for Blondie & Kitty for the play the kids are in (more on that later)

* Luke going to his last cub scout day camp

* Luke buying something for his sisters at the trading post at scout camp

Bee Happy

Thursday, June 30, 2011Notice the dirty shirt - she absolutely hates wearing bibs! She will sit in her high chair and scream and cry the whole time pulling at her bib if we put one on her...

Pool fun

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

The week after we returned from our trip to Washington we had record-breaking hot temperatures in Utah, so we broke out the inflatable pools while M&M was at Oakcrest Girls camp. MJ tolerated the water and enjoyed splashing in it. When I brought her in to get her dressed I noticed that she had been stung by something on the back of her thigh right where her diaper leg opening goes. I'm not sure what stung her or when it happened, but luckily she didn't have any adverse reactions to the sting and it didn't appear to bother her at all.

Love those thighs!!

Birthday & Father's Day

Sunday, June 19, 2011
DH's birthday was on Father's Day this year and it was also the first day of our family reunion at Mossyrock. We started out the day by checking out of our hotel room early so we could make it to 9 a.m. church with my brother and his family. We just stayed for Sacrament Meeting and then headed down to Mossyrock where DH's parents rented a vacation rental home for the reunion. It was a beautiful, scenic drive. We got there before everyone else so we let the kids out of the car and changed out of our Sunday clothes and just ran around exploring until DH's mom came with the key to let us in!

Here's a picture of our kids with my brother's oldest boy, E. I love the cute smiles - especially on MJ and E! I also love the GREEN in the background!! That's a color that we don't find too often here in Utah!
The kids and I gave DH some pistachios and a new shirt for Father's Day and then his big present for his birthday was a DSLR camera! We have been looking at buying one for a while now and I decided that now is the time that we would use it the most - while the kids are young and involved in sports and school programs and things. DH's parents pitched in to help pay for it and I also got him a few essential accessories so he could start using it right away - a camera bag, memory card, zoom lens. I had M&M wrap all the presents before we left our house and then we packed them already wrapped in our luggage. We had fun trying to keep everything hidden from DH. When DH was loading my bag into the car he commented on how big and heavy it was - little did he know at the time that I had packed the camera in there with my things! :) Now he has the fun task of trying to figure out how to best use it so we can take some awesome pictures with it!
Putting together some Father's Day goodies:
M&M took these pictures because I was running the video camera. I don't think DH looked at the camera once though...
I'm not quite sure what MJ is doing in these pictures! Maybe she just wanted to make sure that I didn't forget that she turned 11 months old on her Dad's birthday!

Trip to Washington - Seattle

Friday & Saturday, June 17 & 18, 2011

We just before 7:00 in the morning for our trip to Washington. It is not an easy thing trying to pack for a family of 8!! MJ did much better in the car then I was hoping for so that was definitely a plus! We brought stuff in the car to make sandwiches for lunch so we stopped in Oregon at a rest stop and let the kids run around to work off some of their energy. This rest stop was perfect for MJ because she just spent the whole time crawling around on the circle of concrete that the picnic table was on.While at the rest stop one of the kids mentioned that this was MJ's first trip out of the state of Utah! Really?!? After thinking about it for a few minutes we agreed that yes it was her first time out of Utah. We have taken one other family trip since she was born, but that was to St. George and we didn't leave the state during that trip (although we almost took a day trip to a state park in Nevada while we were there).Our first destination was my brother's house just outside of Seattle. We got in around 8:30 that night (after stopping at McDonald's for some dinner during one of our gas fill-up stops). We took my ipad on the trip but I was unable to activate my account for AT&T's cellular service before we left. After driving for a little while we realized that for some reason I am getting free WiFi service. When I check my data plan on the ipad it says that I do not have a current data plan. That ended up being an unexpected plus because I was able to book a hotel room for our first two nights as well as keep in contact with my brother before our arrival.

After saying "hi" to his family we ended up leaving Blondie and Kitty there to spend the night and the rest of us piled back in the car to find and check-in to our hotel. Luke and MJ slept on the floor and the rest of us were on beds. The hotel was just fine for our needs - nothing too spectacular (although now that I think about it the A/C didn't work too well so we were pretty warm most of the night). They had a free continental breakfast which we love. We ate in shifts so that someone could stay in the room with MJ. After that we met back up at my brother's place and then we piled in the cars for a trip to Boeing's Museum of Flight.
It was a busy day at the museum and there were quite a few people around - including these three that looked vaguely familiar. ;)




After exploring the museum for a while we headed out to the cars for a soggy lunch of peanut butter sandwiches and chips. It rained/drizzled pretty much the whole day! After lunch D and his family left to go home for naps and our family went back into the museum to explore some more.
We also happened to be there on the day that Edgar Hansen from the T.V. show Deadliest Catch was there with some members of the Coast Guard. They were doing some type of award presentation followed by a question and answer session. DH and I are big fans of the show so that was kind of neat. :)
The day we were visiting the museum they also had a special exhibit out front of the building where they had some different types of helicopters and safety vehicles that they let people climb into and ask the workers questions about them. We waited until the afternoon when the rain had mostly died down to venture out there.

Before we left the museum we walked over to the exhibit with an older Air Force One plane and one of the Concorde planes. After going through Air Force One the younger kids had had it so I walked them back to the car while DH, M&M and Luke waited in the line to go through the Concorde.

After the museum we headed back to my brother's house and my sister-in-law, K, and I made a trip to Costco to pick up some pizza for dinner and some food for the reunion the next day. After dinner we left M&M and Luke to spend the night and the rest of us went back to the hotel for the night.

The kids enjoyed spending time with my brother's two boys. Kay was especially enthralled with their 3 month old baby. She kept asking where her Baby L was and talking about how cute he was. At one point on Saturday evening she was playing with him and she said, "It's my Baby L! She's sooo cute! She's a boy." We all started laughing because it sounded so funny. She still needs to figure out how those pronouns work!
Apparently M&M was quite a big help over at their house and they were hoping she could stay!! :)

Protein?

MJ put a rolled up roly poly bug in her mouth while we were outside today! Thankfully I was able to get it out before she swallowed it!

The heat is on!

We have had nothing but hot, hot (and even some high humidity) days since we returned from our trip to Washington! I already can't wait for fall to get here!


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Cleaning Up

We've been trying to teach MJ how to help cleanup the toys. We have been handing her blocks or legos and then having her put them into the box they belong in. Well, I guess it is starting to catch on! Yesterday we were at my parents' house looking through some fabric in my mom's sewing room. I had dumped out some blocks on the floor for MJ to play with when I noticed her taking those blocks and throwing them into the trash can!

Now we just need to get Kay to help...

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